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Countryside Energy Co-operative supports Green Energy Act

Friday, December 5th 2008 11:10:21am

Milverton, Ontario (Friday, December 5, 2008) - At Queen’s Park today, during the critically important global climate change conference in Poznan, Poland, the Green Energy Act Alliance released its expectations for the upcoming Ontario Green Energy Act. The Alliance’s recommendations for the Act can bring economic prosperity and new & sustainable ‘green’ jobs to Ontario, reduce Ontario greenhouse gas emissions, and allow individuals, communities and companies to become energy producers and conservers.

One of the community groups that will benefit from a Green Energy Act is Countryside Energy Cooperative. Based in Milverton in rural Perth County, Countryside Energy has been working, in collaboration with Windshare Co-op, for three years to develop Ontario’s first community-owned windfarm. However, its plans for a 10 MW windfarm in Bruce Country, one of the windiest parts of the province, has been stymied for the last two years because of the “Orange Zone”, a huge swath of Ontario that the Ontario Power Authority has put considerable restraints on new renewable energy development.

“Our members, which include a number of local farmers, really want to do something, not only about adverse climate change that threatens the future of our children, but also about the smog and air pollution that is causing untold health problems for people. However, we are being prevented from doing anything,” said co-op manager Doug Fyfe. He believes a Green Energy Act that obliges utilities to grant green energy priority access to the electricity grid will enable his project to go ahead.

‘"The Green Energy Act will help the utilities and ourselves grow together and help solve the province's energy problems," says Fyfe.

Fyfe has consulted extensively with local members of parliament, John Wilkinson, MPP for Perth-Wellington and Carol Mitchell, MPP for Huron-Bruce, both of whom have strongly supported Countryside Energy Co-op’s project. Fyfe hopes that they will also support the recommendations for the Green Energy Act being made by the Alliance.